Chapter 26 and a half
by RuJa4EVA
Summary: Pondering her and Jem's fight on her way home from school, Scout Finch notices a man standing inside the yard of the Radley Place. Warning him about the Radleys, she ends up telling the mysterious man Boo Radley's story. Set between chapters 26 and 27


**Created for an English assignment, I'd actually been planning to write this on my own. I really enjoyed this book, and Boo Radley was definitely my favorite character. The thought of Arthur as sort of a guardian to Scout made me smile. With this, I give you To Kill A Mockingbird - Chapter 26 ½**

Jem and I didn't talk for awhile. The next day he hadn't spoken a word to me as we walked toward the grammar-school building. I didn't bother to say goodbye to him as he continued on his way to the high school. If he wanted to be that way – if he wants to forget the past summer completely – then fine. I sure wasn't going to stop him.

As I walked down the long street parallel to the Radley house, I felt exceptionally lonely. School had just started and I still wasn't used to Jem's high school schedule and football practice. Looking up at the Radley place, I yearned for the old days of going after Boo Radley. _Arthur _Radley, I corrected myself -Mr. Arthur Radley. I'd been trying to train myself to think of the agoraphobe as a respectable gentleman, a gesture made out of guilt for what Jem, Dill, and I had put him through. It wasn't working out for me.

Still though, I honestly did miss those days. Days full of laughing and having fun _together_. The things we'd done were childish nonsense – cruel, but innocent. The care-free summers full of wonders about Boo Radley, the rumored neighborhood nutso, were long gone after Tom Robinson's case. I had to remember that, as sad as it was.

In the midst of summer daydreams, I realized I hadn't gotten very far on my walk home. I was just barely a quarter of the way down the long street near Radley Place. Quickly picking up the pace with thoughts of all the homework I had to do, I frowned when I noticed a figure leaning on the Radley fence. Not on the outside though – the man was on the front yard, the shade of a tree covering his features. Wary, I didn't get close enough to see what the man looked like, and even considered running the rest of the way home. However, recalling Nathan Radley and his shotgun, I thought better of it.

"You better be careful, mister!" I called out from a safe distance. "The man who lives here doesn't like other people on his property."

"Oh?" A raspy voice rang out from the fence, sounding a bit amused. "And who might that be?" It asked in a mocking tone, as if skeptical of my words.

"Mr. Nathan Radley, sir!" A little miffed at the tone of voice the man used, I decided to show him how much I really knew, that I wasn't just some kid making up stories. Maybe I would even scare him a bit, make him rely on my every word to tell him how to get off that property before awful things happened. "And rumor has it, his younger brother, Boo's in there too."

The man seemed to wince slightly at the mention of Boo's name, and he grimaced as if the name gave him a stomach ache. Not caring much, I went into greater detail about Boo. "Miss Stephanie Crawford says that Boo Radley once drove a pair of scissors into his father's leg. His hands are always bloodstained, because he eats raw squirrels and cats. On his face there's a long scar goin' across, and his teeth are as yellow as a container of mustard."

The more detail I went into about Boo Radley, the more amused the stranger's face got, and the more annoyed I became, the more I shared with the stranger. It wasn't long before I was telling the man a detailed biography on Boo Radley's life. I never walked any closer to him; he never tried to make an attempt to come out from behind the fence. He never interrupted me – in fact, he'd barely spoken two words since I'd begun my report about my insane neighbor. Not once in my story had I called Boo Radley by his true name. It'd long since gotten back into my old habit.

Finally coming to an end in my story, I glanced at the sky and gasped when I realized how low the sun was in the sky. Atticus was probably going to be home any minute! Picking up my book bag which I had dropped mid-biography, I hastily put it on my shoulders before speeding off towards my house, leaving the man of whom I'd been talking for over an hour with nothing but a "I gotta go mister, see you around!" The mysterious man simply smiled and waved goodbye, a small chuckle breaking through his lips.

Had I known that man was Boo Radley, I probably would have stayed longer.


End file.
